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Sunday, July 22, 2012

Funky kitchen gadget brilliance

Pastry chefs are known for thinking out side the box, and being great problem solvers. There are so many times in a kitchen you are a lone wolf, the only pastry cook in a sea of sweaty rude young men, who make their needs top priority and only acknowledge you when they have some fruit that has gone off. Thats when they toss it on your table as they pass by to have cigarette and mumble, "make some sorbet or some shit out of this"

We are constantly having to come up with a better way, a different mold, or a splashier garnish. Remember too, young 'uns, I was in the kitchen before the internet ( for the most part) I can only imagine the information sharing that goes on , the exposure to things we had only "heard" about. For my part I'd spend all my spare money ( not much when you are a cook) on magazines. And the good ones, were expensive..I had years of Gourmet, Savour, Pastry Art and Design, Chocolatier, to name a few. But one little magazine I loved and all the boys made fun of me for reading, they called it a House wife magazine, was "Cooks Illustrated" They never did anything too fancy, but they would do insipred things like test recipes and show you all along the way the differences. They did equipment reviews, and covered all the basics. They also often showed new innovative kitchen gadgets. And who doesnt love a great gadget!!

So as a bit of an homage to my old cooks illustrated days I am going to share with you some of the funkier things that have caught my culinary eye as of late....

I love this idea!

A little hint I would add, that works great even if you are squeezing the citrus by hand..soak it in a bowl of hot hot water for 3-5 minutes before you juice. You will find you get almost twice as much juice per fruit. Also make the skin very soft if you want to zest it first.

I always have a little pile of trimmings, onion skins whatever on the corner of my cutting board, I would love this. In the kitchen I would often stand with a big ole garbage can between me and the cutting board so it was easy to get rid of all the garbage, like pinepple skins, melon rinds, that take up so much space on your board.

I see these things "Chip Clips" in the grocery store and I often wonder who would buy that!? But people do, and thats perfectly ok :) Whats more ok is save the money and bust up a hangar. I love a nice Macgyver...

Sigh....

Not so much a kitchen gadget as a nice idea. I cant complain, I have had breakfast made for me recently, but how much slicker would it have been had I a groovy set up like this! Nice!

How Exquisite is this!?

Hello Vacuum Brewer. It is said the vacuum brewing principle has been proven to be exceptionally effective at extracting all the flavor from the coffee grounds, while removing the more “chewy” texture of the french press method. I never did like those bodums. This I love but I can also see me stumbling around, low on caffeine and knocking the beautiful thing over and breaking it. When can I ever have nice things!?!? :)

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Sunday, July 22, 2012

Funky kitchen gadget brilliance

Pastry chefs are known for thinking out side the box, and being great problem solvers. There are so many times in a kitchen you are a lone wolf, the only pastry cook in a sea of sweaty rude young men, who make their needs top priority and only acknowledge you when they have some fruit that has gone off. Thats when they toss it on your table as they pass by to have cigarette and mumble, "make some sorbet or some shit out of this"

We are constantly having to come up with a better way, a different mold, or a splashier garnish. Remember too, young 'uns, I was in the kitchen before the internet ( for the most part) I can only imagine the information sharing that goes on , the exposure to things we had only "heard" about. For my part I'd spend all my spare money ( not much when you are a cook) on magazines. And the good ones, were expensive..I had years of Gourmet, Savour, Pastry Art and Design, Chocolatier, to name a few. But one little magazine I loved and all the boys made fun of me for reading, they called it a House wife magazine, was "Cooks Illustrated" They never did anything too fancy, but they would do insipred things like test recipes and show you all along the way the differences. They did equipment reviews, and covered all the basics. They also often showed new innovative kitchen gadgets. And who doesnt love a great gadget!!

So as a bit of an homage to my old cooks illustrated days I am going to share with you some of the funkier things that have caught my culinary eye as of late....

I love this idea!

A little hint I would add, that works great even if you are squeezing the citrus by hand..soak it in a bowl of hot hot water for 3-5 minutes before you juice. You will find you get almost twice as much juice per fruit. Also make the skin very soft if you want to zest it first.

I always have a little pile of trimmings, onion skins whatever on the corner of my cutting board, I would love this. In the kitchen I would often stand with a big ole garbage can between me and the cutting board so it was easy to get rid of all the garbage, like pinepple skins, melon rinds, that take up so much space on your board.

I see these things "Chip Clips" in the grocery store and I often wonder who would buy that!? But people do, and thats perfectly ok :) Whats more ok is save the money and bust up a hangar. I love a nice Macgyver...

Sigh....

Not so much a kitchen gadget as a nice idea. I cant complain, I have had breakfast made for me recently, but how much slicker would it have been had I a groovy set up like this! Nice!

How Exquisite is this!?

Hello Vacuum Brewer. It is said the vacuum brewing principle has been proven to be exceptionally effective at extracting all the flavor from the coffee grounds, while removing the more “chewy” texture of the french press method. I never did like those bodums. This I love but I can also see me stumbling around, low on caffeine and knocking the beautiful thing over and breaking it. When can I ever have nice things!?!? :)